The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

This is what happens when law and order breaks down

I couldn't help being cynically amused at this report from California.

Oakland’s crime problems have gotten so bad that some people aren’t even bothering to call the cops anymore; instead, they’re trying to solve and prevent crimes themselves.

. . .

The vigilance has never seemed more necessary than now; 25 homes in [East Oakland’s Arcadia Park neighborhood] have been burglarized over the last two months alone.

. . .

Over the weekend, one home was burglarized twice in a 24 hour period, once while a resident’s nephew was inside.

“He was on with 911 when those men tried to kick into his room. That was very frightening,” said the woman, identified only as Inca.

. . .

“We don’t have a choice. Either die or we hire some security ourselves, because we can’t depend on the police department,” said Tarvins.

This news comes at a time when private ownership of defensive firearms is under concerted attack across the country. I daresay those threatened by armed criminals won't support such efforts; and as more and more people, in more and more neighborhoods, find that their state and local governments can no longer afford to provide adequate police protection against criminals, they're going to want their own weapons to protect themselves. I think the most effective argument against liberal gun-grabbers may prove to be armed criminals!

Of course, I'm not surprised to see neighbors get together to protect their own areas. I've done so myself on more than one continent on a number of occasions, most recently following Hurricane Gustav in 2008, as I described here at the time. We kept things together quite satisfactorily until the situation returned to normal. I hope and trust these good folks can do the same . . . although they're probably going to have to do so for much longer than we did!

Yeah, I have a friend in that neighborhood. He says a lot of people are just giving up and moving, but when your place has been hit three times in the last two months by the same crew and the cops won't do anything, what else are you going to do?

It's not like the law in CA lets you defend yourself, and "Shoot, shovel, and shut up" is a lot more immoral when it comes to humans than wolves.